Foreclosure crisis not over

About 70,000 property owners joined the ranks of Ohioans facing foreclosure in 2012. That figure was a slight improvement over 2011, but it represents more than four times as many annual new foreclosure filings as in the mid-1990s.

Even as our state's economy and housing market continue to recover, albeit slowly, the foreclosure crisis is not over. Much more urgently remains to be done to help homeowners - often poor, elderly, or disabled - and their families cope with the risk of losing their homes.

Housing analysts link the foreclosure figures to a variety of troubles, notably loss of household income caused by unemployment, reduced work hours, or catastrophic illness. That's not surprising, but the diagnosis of the ailment is less important now then prescriptions for preventing foreclosures.

Those prescriptions surely include more financial help for the nonprofit groups, in Toledo and across the state, that are on the front lines of the battle against foreclosure.

Housing advocates are properly calling on Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to use part of the state's $93 million in proceeds from the settlement last year of a national mortgage case against banks to provide financial aid to these groups. As they work on the next two-year state budget, lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich's administration also should provide more, not less, money for counseling to prevent foreclosures, and for related efforts to relieve financial burdens on households that are at greatest risk of home foreclosures.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Foreclosure crisis not over

About 70,000 property owners joined the ranks of Ohioans facing foreclosure in 2012. That figure was a slight improvement over 2011, but it represents more than four times as many annual new